


Magpie In Love

by raspbearry



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: F/F, Falling In Love, you know you need Reiko and a youkai falling in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:22:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25984327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raspbearry/pseuds/raspbearry
Summary: Reiko stole Kasasagi's name, what else will she steal by the end of the summer?This story is an extension off my Ask Me fanfic. Please feel free to read if you want to hear more about Kasasagi ;Dhttps://archiveofourown.org/works/25983310
Relationships: Natsume Reiko/Original character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1
Collections: Natsume Yuujinchou Bang Summer 2k20





	Magpie In Love

**Author's Note:**

> Art by Parthenopia!  
> https://twitter.com/hualiandevotee  
> https://www.instagram.com/parthenopia/

Kasasagi claimed she lived a peaceful life before Natsume Reiko entered it. That was a lie, but she said it anyway. During that summer, it was something she repeated often as she smiled and laughed.

Kasasagi first heard of Reiko from another youkai.

“She’s a monster!” the one-eyed youkai wailed, still clutching at their head. “She’s too powerful and ended up taking my name. I don’t know what I’ll do!”

“It’s just ‘cause you’re weak,” Kasasagi replied from her high branch as she watched the youkai shake its head at her and take off. “I’m sure she’s no big deal!” she called after them but the youkai was long gone. 

Slowly, Kasasagi stretched out her black and white wings as a plan started forming in her mind. This Natsume Reiko sounded like they would be fun to mess with. She grinned and cackled to herself as she flew up into the air, sending leaves falling to the ground and branches tearing another hole in her blue kimono.

She glided over the treetops, listening for any hints of Reiko’s whereabouts. The tales of Reiko ran through the forest, it seemed it was all anyone could talk about. Kasasagi followed until she felt like she must be close, lightly landing just on the edge of the forest trees. She dug her bare feet into the dirt and peered around.

It looked like the human children were heading back from school, taking their familiar path. She didn’t see this oh so fearsome Reiko. Kasasagi dragged a hand through her long hair, yanking out a leaf. Reiko was probably tall, taller than a normal human, with hair down to her feet. Maybe it would be white. Kasasagi looked at her all-black hair in her hand, wishing she would start getting her white streaks in it.

“It’s very pretty.”

Kasasagi squawked, lurching away from the voice as her white mask dangerously tilted to the side. She pushed it back and whipped around to see who snuck up on her.

It was a girl. One of the humans that had wandered away from the path. She stood there with one hand holding her bag behind her shoulder and the other on her hip. Her light brown, almost golden, eyes looked straight at Kasasagi. But… she couldn’t… could she…?

“You can see me?” Kasasagi asked, as she attempted to hide her surprise.

“Yep, always have,” the girl said, covering her mouth as she yawned. Kasasagi straightened up, her feathers fluffing out, but to her disappointment she was still shorter than this girl.

“Why don’t you move on? I’m busy,” Kasasagi snapped, but the girl just laughed.

“Well, I’m bored, so how about a game?” the girl said as she pulled something rectangular out of her bag, “If I win, you have to write down your name in here, and if you win you can eat me or whatever.” The girl waved the thing in front of Kasasagi’s face, it was a book. This was all starting to sound extremely familiar but…

“You _can’t_ be Reiko!” Kasasagi said, involuntarily taking a step back in shock. This… girl was Reiko? But she wasn’t tall! (Well… taller than her, but that didn’t matter!) And her hair was brown instead of a powerful white! Was this seriously the monster stirring up the forest?!

“Oh, you’ve heard of me already?” this girl, this _Reiko_ , said with a smile. Kasasagi practically wanted to shake her. She had such a great trick she wanted to play on Reiko and she already ruined it. But… she could still win this game.

“So, what kind of game?” Kasasagi said, keeping her distance as she crossed her arms.

“How about…” Reiko started, looking up at the sky before a quick grin lit up her face. “The first one to touch a cloud, wins?”

“Touch a cloud?” she said, smiling herself. What was this human playing at? Did she not see Kasasagi’s beautiful wings? How did Reiko expect to get herself up into the sky? “You’re on,” Kasasagi added confidently. 

“On the count of three,” Reiko started, tucking her book under her arm as she opened up her bag.

“One.”

Kasasagi grinned and shook her fingers.

“Two.”

Reiko stood still.

“Three.”

Kasasagi’s wings spread out in a rush, sweeping back as she readied herself to launch, waiting just a moment to see what Reiko would do.

Reiko quickly scooped something out of her bag and ripped a piece off that… looked like a cloud?

Kasasagi froze as she watched Reiko turn the pink puff around in her fingers before popping it into her mouth. 

“Looks like I win,” Reiko said as she took another bite of the cloud.

“That’s cheating,” Kasasagi said, more like a question than a fact.

“I didn’t say we had to fly.”

Kasasagi’s wings sagged to the ground. She had been utterly tricked. Tricked! Her! It was completely embarrassing. 

“Time to write your name,” Reiko said as she put the cloud away and opened up the slim book with one hand, a brush in the other. Kasasagi took the brush and wrote her name, biting her lips as she gave it away. 

Reiko just smiled as the book slipped back into her bag and she put a piece of the cloud into Kasasagi’s empty hands. She turned and walked down the hill, back to the path. Kasasagi waited until Reiko was completely out of sight before she put the cloud in her mouth. It was sweet.

Kasasagi fumed for a day before going to look for Reiko. She felt like walls were pressing into her again even though she was curled up in the crook of a tree branch. Giving away her name… how had she gotten tricked so thoroughly? She felt like a small bird, being dragged back to-- back to the…

When she felt like she could barely breathe she burst out of the treetops and went searching for Reiko. She _would not_ be chained again. She could not… _would not_ … go through it again. Kasasagi would just have to find Reiko and get her name back. Simple as that.

It took her a few hours but she finally tracked Reiko down. It felt odd flying around the human’s town. She almost never went near them except when the festivals were just too enticing. This large building was one that the humans seemed to congregate around often. Kasasagi stepped through the maintained grass, jingling the few sparkly trinkets she’d picked up along the way in her hands. Hearing the _klink, klink, klink_ , helped her calm down as she snuck up to the window that she could smell Reiko at.

She peered through the open window. There were a bunch of the younger humans sitting at their own individual tables. An older human stood at the front, talking as the others wrote. Kasasagi frowned. This seemed pretty boring. She scanned through the room again before settling on Reiko, the one interesting thing in the room.

Reiko was in the back, two seats away from the window, but her body leaned as if she couldn’t resist the freedom of being outside. She didn’t write like the others and her eyes kept wandering over to the sky before turning back to the speaking person. Kasasagi watched her for a long time with an aching feeling she didn’t really understand. 

Suddenly, they were getting up. Reiko’s golden eyes met Kasasagi’s dark brown ones and she walked over to the window. Kasasagi ducked down, kneeling on the ground as Reiko stuck her head out.

“Whatcha up to?” Reiko said, draping her arms on the window sill.

Kasasagi promptly forgot everything she was going to say and stared up at the girl who stole her name. 

Reiko smiled and pointed at Kasasagi’s hands, “What’s that?”

That was enough to get Kasasagi talking.

“It’s some shiny things I found,” she said as she started lining up each item on the window sill. “I don’t usually come near humans, but they drop so many good things.”

Kasasagi placed a coin, a broken charm in the shape of a seashell, a silver zipper piece, a sparkly button, a chain, a pink bead and the back of an earring. 

“Which one is your favorite?” Reiko asked as she leaned her chin on her hand. 

“Hmmm…” She touched a few of them as she thought about it. “This bead,” she said as she picked it up, “It’s the same color as one of my favorite flowers.” 

“I have an idea,” Reiko said, as she pushed away from the sill. “Wait a minute!”

Kasasagi peered over the edge and watched as Reiko went back to her table, dodging the few other humans still in the room. She came back with a piece of string in her hands. Deftly, she put the bead on, tying a pretty knot on each side of it before tying the ends together.

“You can move these knots apart to make it smaller or bigger,” Reiko said as she leaned all the way out the window, putting the necklace around Kasasagi’s neck. Her hands pulled Kasasagi’s long dark hair over the string, letting the little bead fall into place. “There, perfect.”

“Wow,” Kasasagi said. She touched the bead. She couldn’t remember ever being given anything before.

Reiko chuckled, her hair glittering in the sun like one of Kasasagi’s shiny things.

“Do you want one?” Kasasagi asked suddenly. She leaned up, her hands on the sill, their noses almost touching. Reiko’s eyes widened. Maybe no one had ever given her a gift either.

“Any of them?” Reiko said, she looked like she didn’t believe Kasasagi, but she nodded and spread out her hands. Reiko looked down at all of them before picking up the seashell charm. “This one… I’ll take this one.”

“Good, everyone needs something shiny.”

Reiko smiled and closed her hand around the seashell charm. For a moment they didn’t move and then a voice from within turned Reiko away. 

“Gotta go,” Reiko waved, already disappearing like the charm. “Thank you.”

Kasasagi barely caught that last word and she was gone. She squatted under that sill for a moment longer before scooping up the rest of her treasures and flying back into the sky.

Kasasagi went back to that building- the school, she found out it was called- several more times. She meant to talk to Reiko about the book, about her name, but she never did. She watched, she listened, she showed Reiko some more things she found. She went back day after day. At the start of the day she had a reason, at the end of the day she lost it. 

Today she went early, while Reiko was still outside, still free before the cage. Kasasagi had discarded her ratty kimono for a copy of Reiko’s outfit. All the others seemed to wear it as well, all of these human’s walking around Reiko. Kasasagi was just blending in. Not that anyone but Reiko could see her. She didn’t know why she did it and Reiko didn’t say anything either. And anyway, the short skirt was pretty fun.

“You do this every day?” Kasasagi asked, curiously looking at the others. She’d never really bothered with humans much and it was sort of fascinating to be among them. She spotted a shiny charm on a human’s bag and almost reached for it before remembering why she was there.

“Yeah, pretty much. Unfortunately, for us humans, we have to go to school until we’re adults,” Reiko said with a sigh. “Sometimes even adults go to school.”

“What? That seems strange!” Kasasagi said, almost squawking in her shock, “But everyone seems so miserable there! Why bother going back?”

Reiko didn’t answer right away. She pushed back her hair and looked over at Kasasagi. “Not everyone is miserable. Some people find school fun.”

Kasasagi wanted to point out that Reiko didn’t find it fun. She wanted to say that she’d watched Reiko staring out the window, looking for something, looking for a way out, an escape.

Kasasagi understood that very well.

“Talking to yourself again, freak?”

Kasasagi whirled around to see who said that, but Reiko kept looking forward. Two girls were swaggering up to her, one on each side, putting themselves right between Kasasagi and Reiko. 

“Ohhh, but she can _see_ things, right, Hana?” the girl farthest away said, showing her teeth. “She’s just so much better than us, right?”

Kasasagi hissed, but no one heard.

“Why are you even here anyway?” the girl who was Hana said. She leaned in toward Reiko, her hand reaching out and touching Reiko’s shoulder, as she whispered, “People like you should just go die already.”

Kasasagi shoved her, hard, knocking the girl straight to the ground. Her arms scraped across the dirt, giving Kasasagi a satisfied smirk as she saw blood.

“You… you bitch!” Hana screeched as the other girl knelt down to help her up. By the time Kasasagi looked back Reiko was running. 

She wasn’t running to run away, Reiko never once looked scared, these girls were nothing to her. She ran because it was the only thing she could do. Kasasagi saw it in every step like in the beat of her own wings. Desperate, desperate, desperate, to feel alive, to be somewhere. Reiko’s hair flew behind her, her skirt dancing around her legs. Kasasagi didn’t follow, but she could almost picture the fierce smile spreading across Reiko’s face.

That night Kasasagi dreamed. She dreamed of being born, of her nest, her siblings, her mother and father. Then she dreamed of the storm, the crashing and smashing and almost flying almost falling. She dreamed of hands. Hands with two rings each. At first they were warm, but the cold quickly seeped in. She didn’t know how long she was inside that cage, only seeing the sky from a window. Maybe it was a lifetime. A lifetime she beat her wings against the bars but never flew. A lifetime of plucked feathers and dreams and cold, cold, cold, cold metal.

She woke up crying and with the image of her finally flying through the bars and out the window. Never looking back at the little broken body that was left behind.

Kasasagi looked for Reiko the next day but couldn’t find her. A spike of panic hit her that she was starting to grow familiar with. She searched the school, the forest, and the town, before she picked up Reiko’s scent heading towards the sea. It was night by the time she reached her. 

They were all at the beach, wandering among the sand, laughing and splashing. Well, one wasn’t.

Kasasagi sat down beside Reiko, her feathers tracing little patterns in the sand. 

“You followed me,” Reiko said, staring off into the sea. 

“Why’d you leave?” Kasasagi leaned towards Reiko, trying to make her look over at her. Reiko did as she laughed.

“Oh, it’s a school trip,” she said, waving her hands around as she tried to explain. “It’s like… a trip that the school plans that’s supposed to be a fun outing?”

“You don’t look like you’re having fun.”

Reiko just gave a little smile.

They sat there together watching the other humans run around until they were the only ones left. Kasasagi heard the school humans being called in, but Reiko didn’t move. No one even looked at her as they passed. Kasasagi couldn’t take her eyes off her.

The stars circled overhead and the waves pushed in and out. Kasasagi inched closer and closer until their shoulders were touching. Slowly, Reiko started talking, her words ebbing in and out. Kasasagi listened, listened to all the hurt and loneliness and joy. She took in all of it, it was all so familiar, and let it take up space by her heart. As the sky started to lighten Reiko’s story came to an end and Kasasagi’s began. It didn’t take up much time, but Reiko listened. Kasasagi was sure she was listening. They fell into silence as the sun started to rise. 

“Oh, look!” Reiko said, pointing out into the waves. Kasasagi followed her hand and saw the rise of a large back poking out of the water. “This will be fun!”

Reiko was rising, sand flying around her. She grabbed Kasasagi’s hand and they were running. Their legs splashed into the waves, water flying everywhere as Reiko laughed. Kasasagi couldn’t look away, that wild laughter, the spray of water, it was beautiful. Reiko sunk to her waist and started trying to swim. Kasasagi spread her wings and wrapped her arms around Reiko, lifting them both out of the waves.

“Wooo!” Reiko yelled, putting both her arms out as if she was the one flying. And they did fly, until they could see the whole of the large water youkai in the shape of a whale. “Let’s go down!”

Kasasagi laughed this time and she flew down, Reiko’s feet, somehow still wearing her shoes, touching down on the youkai. She followed, both of them wobbling as they tried to find their balance. The youkai grumbled but rose a bit farther out of the waves. Reiko sat before she fell and patted the large back of the youkai. Kasasagi followed, the sun cresting over the waves. It felt like they were escaping, like they were leaving it all behind, going straight into the sunrise. 

Kasasagi looked over at that shining face, the golden eyes, the laugh that threw everything away, and she decided right there that this girl could have her name. She could have her. Reiko was an entire sky. Kasasagi hadn’t ever felt freer.

The rest of the summer was a dream that Kasasagi didn’t want to wake up from. Days and days of them together. Kasasagi stole a kiss and then Reiko took one. The bead stayed around Kasasagi’s neck and she spied the seashell around Reiko’s wrist. Kasasagi crept through Reiko’s window in the nights, touching the bruises and scrapes on her body. 

Kasasagi only asked Reiko once to leave with her, to leave all of this behind. 

“Reiko,” she said, looking down from the sky to face those golden eyes, “You should just leave them. It could be just the two of us, you know? We could do whatever we wanted.”

The silence stretched out between the two of them. Kasasagi shifted from foot to foot, waiting for the answer. Reiko didn’t look away from the town as she smiled and shook her head.

“I’m sorry, I can’t today,” she answered simply. Kasasagi shook her wings angrily. 

“That means, you can do it tomorrow, right?” she said, pouting because sometimes that worked with Reiko. Reiko laughed and ran her hand through Kasasagi’s black hair, getting her hand stuck in a knot.

“Yes, okay, tomorrow, we’ll go anywhere you like,” Reiko said as she untangled her hand and took Kasasagi’s hand in hers. Kasasagi smiled, the only thoughts in her head about their future. They finally spread their wings and ran. Ran like she knew Reiko always wanted to. 

But the next day, Reiko was gone.

Tomorrow had been a lie. 

Kasasagi’s scream rattled the clouds as she flew off, searching for her sky.


End file.
